Bike Food

What to eat and drink when you're riding.

The information in this article comes from my experiences, the
nutritional information in Cycling Plus magazine, and advice from
fellow riders on the newsgroup uk.rec.cycling.

Drink

Drinking enough is actually more important than eating. If you
allow yourself to become dehydrated, your efficiency on the bike can
drop dramatically. This is true no matter how fast or slow you
ride. On the other hand, if you are riding slowly enough, you can ride
without eating anything at all: your body can be trained to burn fat
as you ride. (However, most people like to ride faster than this, so
this isn't terribly useful in practice.)

The main methods of carrying water are water bottles and hydration
packs. I tend to use water bottles for road rides, as I like to ride
without anything on my back when I can. I tend to take two large water
bottles with me when I'm out for any length of time. When I get down
to only about a half a water bottle left, I'll stop and get some more
water. Two large water bottles will last me anywhere between about 30
miles to 70 miles, depending on hot and humid it is.

When I ride off-road, I usually use a hydration pack (otherwise
known as Camelbak, these are small backpacks with plastic bags with
hoses to hold the water). There are two main reasons for this. First,
water bottles end up covered with mud, and this deters me from wanting
to drink from them. Second, a hydration pack holds more water
than I can get in water bottles. You can fit a bit over 2 liters in
your standard bladder, while the usual large water bottle holds about
0.8 liter, giving about 1.6 liters for two bottles. I find the larger
capacity useful for off-road, when I'm less likely to be going
through villages where I can get more water.

Energy Drink

Energy drink is useful for a couple of reasons. First, it is a
constant feeding of calories to your body, and these calories come in
a form that's ready to use as is, requiring very little in the way of
digestion. If you use an energy drink you can get away with eating
less solid food. Second, if you have the right stuff in the fluid,
it's absorbed better than plain water.

The best mixture involves some carbohydrate with electrolytes
(minerals like sodium and potassium). The purpose of the electrolytes
is twofold: first, they replace some of the minerals you lose in your
sweat, and second, they help get the carbohydrates and water through
the lining of the gut and into the blood stream. An energy drink
containing carbohydrate and electrolytes that is mixed to about the
same concentration (osmolarity if you want to get technical) as the
blood is called and isotonic drink. If your preferred energy
drink doesn't have electrolytes in it, you can add some yourself by
tossing in a pinch of salt (or Lo-salt, a mix of potassium chloride
and sodium chloride) per liter of drink.

The most useful form of energy drink is the powdered kind that you
add to your water. This is cheaper than the liquid kind, and it is
easy to carry with you to put into your water when you refill your
water bottles.

You'll get the best effect (in terms of feeding your muscles
energy) if your drink is 5.5% to 7% carbohydrate. Since most energy
drink powders are close to being 100% carbohydrate, 1 gram of powder
will give you 1 gram of carbohydrate. Thus if you add 55 to 70 grams
of your favorite energy drink powder to a liter of water (or 44 to 56
grams per typical large water bottle) you'll end up with the right
mix. The best thing to do is use your kitchen scales to find out how
many teaspoons give you the right number of grams, then just use the
teaspoon to measure out the stuff.

If you have a higher concentration of carbohydrates than 5.5% to
7%, this will inhibit the absorption of the fluid, so this is not the
thing to drink when you're exercising. However it's fine after you're
finished to replentish the stores of energy in your muscles. A lower
concentration of carbs is fine, especially if you don't like the sweet
taste you get with the proper isotonic mix. It doesn't give you as
many calories per gulp, but if it tastes better you'll end up drinking
more, which is usually beneficial.

Be careful with mixing instructions on the package: often they
suggest you to use quite a lot of powder, resulting in a solution with
more carbohydates than the recommended amount for an isotonic
beverage.

As for which energy drink to buy, I'd suggest getting the one that
tastes best to you. If you want to be more scientific than that, here
are some things you can look for. There are different kinds of
carbohydrates. Maltose, dextrose, fructose etc are simple sugars which
are broken down and get into your blood very quickly. There are "long
chain" carbohydrates such as maltodextrin which take a bit longer to
break down, and thus provide a more steady release of sugars into your
blood. Maltodextrin isn't really sweet, so some products with lots of
it use artificial sweeteners to make the drink taste sweet. If you
object to this, you'll want to avoid those drinks.

If you want an isotonic drink, but don't want to pay the price for
these special powders, take fruit juice and dilute it with an equal
amount of water. Add a pinch of salt or Lo-Salt per liter for
electrolytes.

Food

If you're cycling along at a decent pace for more than say a
couple of hours, you'll need something to eat. Many people use energy
bars, but I think they are a waste of money. As far as I can tell they
aren't any better for you than carefully chosen normal (not exercise
specific) foods. Basically, what you want to look for is something
with lots of carbohydrates and low in fat (say less than 15 grams of
fat per 100 grams of product). Good snacks that fall into this
category are:

Avoid things like high-fat cereal or granola bars, or flapjacks, as
they are too high in fat. Although they've got lots of calories, it
will take longer for your body to break it down and make use of
it.

Post ride

It's important to get some carbohydrates into your body soon after
you finish your ride. During the first hour after you finish
exercising your body is especially efficient at replentishing energy
stores in your muscles, so getting some energy to them then will help
you prepare for your next ride. As when you're riding, the best form
of calories is carbohydrates. The same foods that are good at feeding
you during your ride are good for a post-ride top-up, but since you're
more likely to be home you can treat yourself to something requiring a
bit more preparation like pasta.

Riding your bike causes small amounts of damage to your muscles
(that's what that gentle ache in your thighs means). Thus a small
amount of protein in with your post-ride snack can help to repair any
damage. But there's no need to overdo this: the amount of protein you
get in yogurt or baked beans on toast will be plenty sufficient.

If you don't feel like eating solid food, your energy drink can be
used for this post-ride replenishment. If you've been drinking enough
during your ride your main concern won't be hydrating yourself, so you
can mix up the energy drink a bit stronger than you would when you're
riding. However, I often find myself quite thirsty after a ride
(probbably not drinking enough) so I mix mine up fairly weak so it
doesn't interfere with fluid absorption. As above, a small amount of
protein can help to rebuild muscle, so I've taken to drinking Boots
protein/energy drink after a ride (mixed up about half the
concentration they recommend, 2.5 scoops per 500ml). It's easy to mix
up and tastes good to me. My boyfriend hates it however, so tastes do
vary!

Ride all day

For longer rides, you'll want to eat a real meal while you're out
riding (typically lunch) in addition to snacks. You should choose this
food carefully, as well as the breakfast you eat before starting. For
breakfast you want to put complex carbohydrates into you. These will
be broken down slowly, providing a steady source of energy. You should
avoid highly sugary breakfasts, like donuts. These can cause your
blood sugar level to skyrocket, and then a rush of insulin in response
brings your blood sugar levels way down, leaving you with little
energy for cycling.

The best lunches are again high in carbohydrates. Examples are:
baked potatoes, sandwiches with thick bread, anything with rice, and
pasta. You can eat fatty things, but they will take longer to break
down. Also, a moderate amount of sweets won't hurt to boost blood
sugar levels a bit.

If you're spending all day out riding, you'll need to eat
alot. When I'm touring I'm riding all day for days at a time, and I
tend to settle into this pattern of eating: eat a big breakfast, have
a decent-sized snack around 11am, have a good-sized lunch around 1 or
2, have more snacks at 3 or 4, have a decent early dinner after
cycling, at around 6 or 7. I found that I needed to eat lots of food
early in the day, when I was cycling, and I didn't need any food after
dinner. I estimate that I consume somewhere between 1.5 and 2 times my
usual caloric intake while touring.

For balanced-diet considerations, I found it hard to eat enough
fruits and veggies whilte touring: typical breakfast foods seem to be
high-fat eggs & bacon, and dinners often come with high-fat chips
(french fries) instead of rice or salad. I often found myself
selecting dinners based on the quantity of veggies they came with. You
can also increase your fruit intake by stopping in villages to buy
bananas and other fresh fruits for immediate consumption. Several
times I remember seeing a bunch of bananas hanging in a store window
and being irresistably drawn in to buy them.